Company of Thieves - Review
23/10/2008 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachel500Company of Thieves is the 9th episode in Season Ten of Stargate SG1.
Review
Company of Thieves is a decent outing for the SG1 team; the story is cohesive and well-planned and even manages to keep an element of humour in an otherwise sobering tale. Unfortunately, what it does miss is decent characterisation for the majority of the SG1 regulars.
Alan McCullough manages to do better with the characters here than in his last outing Insiders. Mitchell who carries much of the rescue arc of the story is well-drawn; his propensity to be a risk taker is incorporated in his plan to go undercover and later in his plan to takeover the second Goa’uld ship by pretending to be Netan. He is written well as a leader; recognising that the transponder is probably an ambush and thinking on his feet throughout. All in all it’s a great story for Mitchell and certainly, Ben Browder seems to relish it even if his acting muscles are never truly challenged as he easily excels in the action hero role.
Landry and Teal’c are also written in character although both are not required to do much except the usual standard fare; Landry to bluster a little in the briefings and Teal’c to relay information about the Jaffa and get tortured. Teal’c does get a moment to protest how sick he is of torture; a feeling shared by most of the audience. Torturing Teal’c has definitely been overplayed as a plot device although here it does have its place within the story as a whole.
However, Daniel, Vala and Sam’s characterisations are all ‘off’. Daniel has very little to do except participate in comedy routines with Vala and his major scene of playing at being captain of the Odyssey while adding a note of humour to the proceedings fails to ring true for the character. Michael Shanks delivers his lines in the right places and with the right inflections but for me without any passion or urgency given the various situations; whether this was in part down to how the actor chose to play the scenes or the direction, he is certainly not assisted by the dialogue or by Daniel’s ‘undercover’ wardrobe which frankly makes him look silly. Daniel’s dynamic with Vala particularly in the scene where she offers to get a ship and later on the ship itself is also more reminiscent of S9 than S10 to date.
Indeed, Vala seems to have regressed to her S9 persona as a one-dimensional note of being a thief with initiative instead of the more rounded character she has since become. This is exacerbated by the use of her primarily to provide humour whether in kicking the cloak device into working, beaming Anateo into space or making various quips. The humour is appreciated in the darker storyline but it does nothing to further Vala as a character. Claudia Black manages to convey some underlying depth through sheer acting talent in the scene where they are following up on the transponder and when they meet up with Sam but she certainly isn’t helped by Vala’s dialogue any more than Shanks is with Daniel’s.
McCullough’s main failing though in terms of characterisation is Sam. Whether he truly doesn’t understand this particular character or whether he has difficulties putting himself in the head of a strong, intelligent female is uncertain but what is certain is that although her arc could have been just as strong as Mitchell’s, it isn’t. Firstly, she barely gets any dialogue – Emerson holds court until shot, Anateo does most of the talking otherwise and even Marks gets more dialogue when she returns to the hold; secondly, she’s portrayed mostly as ‘fixer and odd-job-man’ rather than as a leader with scenes of fixing the ship rather than leading the crew; thirdly, her scenes of being reunited with Daniel and Vala are played for laughs rather than seriously and once the couple are on the scene, the impression left is that Sam takes a back seat to their antics with Vala even being the one to finally fix the hyper-drive. Amanda Tapping does her best with the material especially in the shock scene of Emerson’s shooting but she can only do so much with so little. It’s not a bad arc for Sam – she does come up with the successful plan to retake the ship – but with more tweaking McCullough could have delivered for Sam just as much of an action hero role as he did for Mitchell.
Overall, the story is excellently planned with the pieces nicely laid out. It is good to see the Lucien Alliance fleshed out with the various infighting and leadership issues incorporated to good effect in Mitchell’s undercover work and Anateo’s betrayal although again their characterisation is one-dimensional. There is a good flow to proceedings and a good pace. The only criticism here is although the story presumably took place over a period of days especially with all the back and forth Mitchell and Teal’c did to the SGC, it feels like it was set over a few hours. Off the Grid had the same issues and whether this is the writing or direction, it’s a definite area for improvement.
Nevertheless, the story is otherwise coherent and the direction of it accomplished especially with the Kefflin/Mitchell duel shots. Every scene looks set-up for maximum effect and the special effects are used wisely. The initial attack on the Odyssey, the mine-field, the battle between the Goa’uld ships, are all excellent and well placed making the whole seamless.
Company of Thieves does give the Lucien Alliance some substance as an enemy and it’s a decent episode with an engaging story. But with improvements in characterisation; by not just using Daniel and Vala for humour and in allowing Sam to be as much an action hero as Mitchell, it could even have been a stand-out episode. So close, but for this particular viewer, not close enough.
Alan McCullough manages to do better with the characters here than in his last outing Insiders. Mitchell who carries much of the rescue arc of the story is well-drawn; his propensity to be a risk taker is incorporated in his plan to go undercover and later in his plan to takeover the second Goa’uld ship by pretending to be Netan. He is written well as a leader; recognising that the transponder is probably an ambush and thinking on his feet throughout. All in all it’s a great story for Mitchell and certainly, Ben Browder seems to relish it even if his acting muscles are never truly challenged as he easily excels in the action hero role.
Landry and Teal’c are also written in character although both are not required to do much except the usual standard fare; Landry to bluster a little in the briefings and Teal’c to relay information about the Jaffa and get tortured. Teal’c does get a moment to protest how sick he is of torture; a feeling shared by most of the audience. Torturing Teal’c has definitely been overplayed as a plot device although here it does have its place within the story as a whole.
However, Daniel, Vala and Sam’s characterisations are all ‘off’. Daniel has very little to do except participate in comedy routines with Vala and his major scene of playing at being captain of the Odyssey while adding a note of humour to the proceedings fails to ring true for the character. Michael Shanks delivers his lines in the right places and with the right inflections but for me without any passion or urgency given the various situations; whether this was in part down to how the actor chose to play the scenes or the direction, he is certainly not assisted by the dialogue or by Daniel’s ‘undercover’ wardrobe which frankly makes him look silly. Daniel’s dynamic with Vala particularly in the scene where she offers to get a ship and later on the ship itself is also more reminiscent of S9 than S10 to date.
Indeed, Vala seems to have regressed to her S9 persona as a one-dimensional note of being a thief with initiative instead of the more rounded character she has since become. This is exacerbated by the use of her primarily to provide humour whether in kicking the cloak device into working, beaming Anateo into space or making various quips. The humour is appreciated in the darker storyline but it does nothing to further Vala as a character. Claudia Black manages to convey some underlying depth through sheer acting talent in the scene where they are following up on the transponder and when they meet up with Sam but she certainly isn’t helped by Vala’s dialogue any more than Shanks is with Daniel’s.
McCullough’s main failing though in terms of characterisation is Sam. Whether he truly doesn’t understand this particular character or whether he has difficulties putting himself in the head of a strong, intelligent female is uncertain but what is certain is that although her arc could have been just as strong as Mitchell’s, it isn’t. Firstly, she barely gets any dialogue – Emerson holds court until shot, Anateo does most of the talking otherwise and even Marks gets more dialogue when she returns to the hold; secondly, she’s portrayed mostly as ‘fixer and odd-job-man’ rather than as a leader with scenes of fixing the ship rather than leading the crew; thirdly, her scenes of being reunited with Daniel and Vala are played for laughs rather than seriously and once the couple are on the scene, the impression left is that Sam takes a back seat to their antics with Vala even being the one to finally fix the hyper-drive. Amanda Tapping does her best with the material especially in the shock scene of Emerson’s shooting but she can only do so much with so little. It’s not a bad arc for Sam – she does come up with the successful plan to retake the ship – but with more tweaking McCullough could have delivered for Sam just as much of an action hero role as he did for Mitchell.
Overall, the story is excellently planned with the pieces nicely laid out. It is good to see the Lucien Alliance fleshed out with the various infighting and leadership issues incorporated to good effect in Mitchell’s undercover work and Anateo’s betrayal although again their characterisation is one-dimensional. There is a good flow to proceedings and a good pace. The only criticism here is although the story presumably took place over a period of days especially with all the back and forth Mitchell and Teal’c did to the SGC, it feels like it was set over a few hours. Off the Grid had the same issues and whether this is the writing or direction, it’s a definite area for improvement.
Nevertheless, the story is otherwise coherent and the direction of it accomplished especially with the Kefflin/Mitchell duel shots. Every scene looks set-up for maximum effect and the special effects are used wisely. The initial attack on the Odyssey, the mine-field, the battle between the Goa’uld ships, are all excellent and well placed making the whole seamless.
Company of Thieves does give the Lucien Alliance some substance as an enemy and it’s a decent episode with an engaging story. But with improvements in characterisation; by not just using Daniel and Vala for humour and in allowing Sam to be as much an action hero as Mitchell, it could even have been a stand-out episode. So close, but for this particular viewer, not close enough.
